The Phony Campaign

2008-05-11 Update

Oscar Levant famously said, "Strip away the phony tinsel of
Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath." Oscar did not
weigh in on politics, but if he had, one suspects he'd still be
searching in vain for the real tinsel.

A huge hit bump for Barry this week,
but this thing happens to the Google on occasion;
I suspect he'll be back in normal range soon.

We should mention the recent poll performed by the Pew
Research Center, which just went out and asked (among other things):
"Do you think of X as
phony or not?"
The "yes" results:

Clinton

50%

Obama

32%

McCain

26%

At one of the NYT blogs, Andrew Kohut breaks down
the phony-perceptions between Obama and McCain by age among registered
voters. I detect a trend, and I bet you can too:

All
Voters

18-29

30-49

50-64

65+

Obama

32%

22%

32%

35%

31%

McCain

26%

31%

32%

21%

17%

Kohut sees an incoming demographic wave of young Democrats. Depressing
news for Republicans.

An article in the St. Petersburg Times details the woes of
Democratic Blue Dog Superdelegates, who don't much like either
Obama or Clinton. Congressman (and Superdelegate) Tim Mahoney is interviewed:

"You don't want to do anything that's just not natural, whether it's
taking a shot or going bowling," Mahoney said. "There's one group of
people you can't kid, and that's rural America. People out in Okeechobee
and Highland counties, they see phony a mile away. You either play there
or you don't."

Mahoney probably should have thought through his remarks a little better;
there are almost certainly non-rural voters in his district who
might resent the implication that they can't see phony a mile
away.

Also, as the article points out, Mahoney is currently occupying the seat
once held by noted GOP pervert Mark Foley for over 10 years. An honest
politician would have pointed out that
voters in his district aren't demonstrably good at phony-spotting at
all.

David Paul Kuhn at Politicosees an upcoming "train wreck" for
Democrats on May 20; Obama looks to go over the 2025-delegate mark,
which according to current rules would clinch the nomination for
him. But:

“We don’t accept 2,025. It is not the real number because that
does not include Florida and Michigan,” said Howard Wolfson, one of
Clinton’s two chief strategists. “It’s a phony
number.”

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